Posts Published in October 2011

Step into the Foto Henny Hoogeveen Leica store in Lisse, the Netherlands, and you’ll be greeted by a giant stainless steel Leica camera that weighs a whopping 350kg (~772lb). The sculpture was crafted by Chinese artist Liao Yibai, and there are only three of them in existence. Besides the one found in the shop, the other two are owned by Leica itself and a distributor. The camera isn’t based on any one model, but is instead a hodgepodge of features found on the M6, M7, and M9.Read more…

Canon’s new 1D X is an impressive fusion of the old 1D and 1Ds lines, boasting state of the art sensor quality combined with impressive speed, but there’s one downside that may be a big disappointment to some photographers: the camera loses autofocus when used with lenses with a max aperture of f/8.

While there aren’t any Canon lenses that naturally have an f/8 maximum, adding a 1.4x extender to a f/5.6 lens or a 2x extender to a f/4 lens results in a lens with a max of f/8. If you’re planning on upgrading to a 1D X but need extended reach (e.g. you do bird photography), you may need to shell out some extra cash for a faster lens.

A ‘vortograph’ is a photo taken using a triangular arrangement of three mirrors. The process was invented back in 1917 by an American photographer named Alvin Langdon Coburn. Photographer Simon Gardiner decided to try his hand at vortography, and created this beautiful Inception-esque photograph of the Champs-Élysées in Paris [using Photoshop].

GoPro has unveiled the HD Hero2, the followup to the highly popular HD Hero from 2009 that has been adopted by daredevils around the world. The new camera is similar in design but offers major upgrades: more angles of view (90°, 127°, and 170°), 11-megapixel still photos (up from 5MP) at 10fps, a helpful LCD display instead of a single character code system, a mini-HDMI port, and a faster sensor that allows for faster frame rates (e.g. 960p at 48fps, up from 30).

The Hero2 is available in three different kits (outdoor, motorsports, and surf) for $300, and the price of the old Hero has been reduced to $200.

Here’s CNET’s introduction to the new Lytro camera. The square LCD screen on the back of the camera might be small, but it’s a touchscreen display that lets you play around with the focus directly in-camera rather than having to connect the device to a computer.

AllThingsD also has a video showing the camera being demoed at their conference last Thursday.

Photographer Lisa Bettany has an interesting post over at Camera+ comparing the iPhone 4S camera to the cameras on each of the previous versions (and a couple other cameras as well). It’s an interesting look at how much cell phone cameras have improved since the original iPhone was announced at the beginning of 2007.Read more…

Photographs of happy babies are cute, but not-so-happy babies can also make for great photo subjects. Photographer Evan Kafka has a knack for capturing wonderful expressions of both varieties.Read more…

More news from the ongoing Olympus scandal: despite an official explanation issued by Olympus last week, the company’s stock has continued to plummet. It closed today at ¥1,099, down from around ¥2,500 before the crisis began. Investors are apparently spooked after a major Japanese newspaper suggested that the payments at the center of the controversy could have links to the criminal underworld (something the company has denied). The New York Times is reporting that the FBI is now involved in the investigation.

Bloomberg writes that Olympus’ stock price makes it an attractive option for a potential acquisition: the current price pegs Olympus’ market value at $3.85 billion, even though its medical-equipment business alone is worth $7.8 billion.